We were a little disappointed by the work in the Phillips de Pury Contemporary Art exhibition opening tonight on West 15th. Their last show, New Art from India and Pakistan, was fantastic. But the work tonight was mostly a disappointment. Above is the headliner of the show, Kelley Walker's I See a Teddy Roosevelt-Shaped Thing. In theory we are attracted to rorschach-diagram-like art. But this one didnt seem very evocative. Even this one here, found on google, seems more intriguing:
Plus, Andy Warhol already did a bunch of these in the eighties. Is our attention span so short now that we cant even remember the eighties?
Warhol's:
In addition, there was another boring Damien Hirst skull:
Is anyone else bored by Hirst's skulls, or is it just me?
There were a few exceptions that were somewhat interesting, shown below. A Rita Ackerman entitled Burning Ashes was cool. Her gestural brushwork was nice and loose. And we liked the use of white.
Also, the auction contained a couple nice Sarah Morris paintings, Pools, Monaco below and Robert Towne after that.
And a deliciously bizarre work by Japanese artist Hideaki Kawashima called I3O. Lets hope the Japanese keep on doin' their thang because its cool. We recommend you check out the show yourself; you might like something else that didn't grab our attention.
More information: Under the Influence at Phillips.
